A woman on her way home is now awaiting emergency surgery at the San Fernando General Hospital after the taxi she was travelling in slammed into the back of a backhoe along the Solomon Hochoy Highway Thursday evening.
At around 6 pm, 52-year-old Erla Ferdinand left her San Fernando job to head to her Penal home in the front passenger seat of a taxi she was accustomed to travelling in. But while travelling along the southbound lane of the highway, just before Debe, the vehicle slammed into the rear bucket of the backhoe, pinning her inside the vehicle.
Emergency services arrived on the scene and firefighters had to cut Ferdinand out of the mangled wreck before she was rushed to the San Fernando General Hospital. Officials said she suffered several broken limbs.
At the hospital, Ferdinand’s daughter, Terry Ferdinand, told T&T Guardian her mother’s sister was the first to find out the news. She said her aunt’s friend was passing by in a taxi as her mother was being loaded into the ambulance and called saying “somebody resembling you get in a accident.” After her aunt called her, they frantically tried to contact her mother but realised it was her in the accident when calls went unanswered.
Panicking relatives soon got to the hospital. But Ferdinand’s niece, Adana, said she was not worried as “my aunt is a praying person.”
Officers on the scene of the accident said the drivers of both vehicles were not injured but the other three passengers were taken to hospital for minor injuries. At the hospital, however, officials indicated only Ferdinand was brought in.
The driver of the taxi was seen entering the San Fernando Police Station to file the report as the wrecker delivered the vehicle.
More on this story as information comes to hand.